Day 11: Bless

MORNING
Bless! Our Losses

Good morning. Welcome to Day 11, Blessing what has been lost. 

There is an ancient tradition in the Japanese culture to repair a broken object. If a vase has been broken, it will be repaired with the appropriate materials. After it’s been repaired, a small object of gold is melted and carefully painted over the crack in the vase. When it is finished, the vase is put back where it belongs. The vase now tells a story of an accident or mishap, the care to repair it, and the beautiful gold etching that highlights what was once broken has now been restored. 

We would do well to care for the mishaps of our relationships in the same way. No relationship is free from the problems of life, and no relationship escapes the hurts that come from selfish people. And yet, we often ignore the broken parts of ourselves that have been repaired, blessed, and restored. Beauty from ashes.

When we refuse to accept the blessing (the gold etching over our brokenness) our spouse gives us, we demand contempt and this chokes out grace. Over time, this erodes both husband and wife in their ability to see what needs grace. 

Yesterday we talked about celebrating the wins of our relationships. Remembering the good and joy that has come from being on the same team. Today, it’s still about the team. Teams that lose together will stay committed together. Problems start getting out of hand when we leave the confines of the team and start blaming and pointing fingers. It’s natural to do so, but never really helps anyone that was a part of the loss. 

Our losses together need the care, attention, and blessing that the vase received in the story above. When we bless our losses, we accept them as necessary (albeit painful) experiences that teach us something about ourselves, our spouse, and about God. If we refuse to address the losses, we refuse to let something be healed in ourselves that only this situation might have been able to heal. 

I wish healing worked differently. I wish it always happened with an epidural, or while I sleep, or when I am away on vacation. But it doesn’t work that way. Healing requires that we be fully awake in the pain and the struggle. And glorious things happen when we are awake and alive to what we are asked to do, especially in marriage. 

Blessing our losses means that we have to move out from being the victim of to a participant with. Not that the loss was the result of our choice, but that our commitment to another person includes participating with them (and them with us) in the repair work that needs to be done. When we offer a blessing to something painful, we are choosing hope instead of despair, love instead of contempt, and companionship instead of isolation. 

It’s easy to desire the blessing when it is me that messed up. When we bless our spouse, we give them permission and an invitation to do the same for us when it is our turn. 

Reflection Questions

  • What did I think about my spouse in reading today’s material? Was it kind? Was it thoughtful? Was it loving?
  • Did I have feelings, thoughts, questions, or stories that came to mind?
  • What is something I can do for them today?
  • How can I welcome and receive what they have done for me today?

Assignment
What are 5 difficult stories/moments of your marriage that need a blessing? Answer these questions about each story: 

  • What happened?
  • What did I feel? 
  • How did I respond?
  • What was so difficult for me about this event?
  • What did I do with the pain I felt?
  • What would a blessing from me look like about this story? 

Give yourself some time to complete today’s assignment. You might need 30 or more minutes to appropriately answer the above questions. Be kind. Remember the celebrations from yesterday, not all is loss. Be careful with the difficult stories. It would be wise to go slow, and ask God to show you what you’ve been unwilling or blind to see about these stories before.

The goal of today’s assignment is to, as a team, find something of gratitude for the difficult experiences you’ve had together. This is not an exercise to excuse what has happened, or to enable it to happen again. It is to find a way to say “thank you” together for what has been present in your lives as a couple. Think and pray about how a “gold etching” could become part of these stories.

EVENING

Hello! Welcome back. Great to see you again. How was your day?

Yesterday I said that stories are awesome, and that is true for today as well. Even though the stories you got into today might not be the ones you want to remember, they need to see the healing light of day. 

Take 10-15 minutes tonight with your spouse to talk through your day. 

  • What were the highs and lows?
  • Where were you surprised? 
  • Was there anything different about your day because of the assignment(s)?
  • From this mornings reading, what stood out to you? 
  • If you’re willing, share your answers to the assignment. (Some words of caution about today’s content. Be kind, be careful, and be hopeful. Share your stories, but do so with a hope to reconcile and redeem, not to tear down and criticize. Go slow. Ask for what you need. Take a few days to do this part of the assignment if that’s what you need.)

Remember to offer grace and a blessing. The goal of today’s assignment is to, as a team, find something of gratitude for the difficult experiences you’ve had together. This is not an exercise to excuse what has happened, or to enable it to happen again. It is to find a way to say “thank you” together for what has been present in your lives as a couple. 

Assignment Connection
(Similar to yesterday’s assignment) Break a vase, repair it, etch it with gold. Fill the vase with rocks of blessings from difficult moments in your lives together. 

Day 5: Marriage & Thanksgiving

In light of this being the American week of Thanksgiving, I’ll be writing about the power of gratitude in marriage, and the encouragement it gives to relationships.
Day 1: The Gratitude Jar
Day 2: Gratitude Prayer
Day 3: Gratitude Letter
Day 4: A Touch of Gratitude

The Lifestyle of Gratitude

Step 12 in the Big Book of AA says this: “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”

Too often we look at marriage as the “thing” that will bring us the peace and happiness that we’ve always longed for. This need is not wrong, but our passivity and relationship to marriage as though it’s a vending machine is what gets us in trouble.

Great stuff starts happening when we move from looking at marriage as a transaction to a relationship we have to grow. 

The 12-step process is a lifestyle, not a short term event. 

It’s the same is true for gratitude and marriage. 

We must surrender and practice gratitude in order to grow even more gratitude. We must also give it away to others. I’ve seen a surrender to the gratitude process create a spiritual and relational awakening in a lot of people. They then carry that message to their children, friends, and communities. 

The gratitude jar, letter, prayer, and touch that I’ve written about this week are just a few ideas to begin of a gratitude lifestyle. Take these ideas and make them your own. Create new ones. Share them with me, and with others.

Who else in your life needs the blessing of gratitude?

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Day 4: Marriage & Thanksgiving

In light of this being the American week of Thanksgiving, I’ll be writing about the power of gratitude in marriage, and the encouragement it gives to relationships. 
Day 1: The Gratitude Jar
Day 2: Gratitude Prayer
Day 3: Gratitude Letter

A Touch of Gratitude

Often the way our brain works can get in the way of receiving verbal thanks from someone we are close to. Our emotions aren’t processed with words, they are more closely processed with non-verbal intuitions. Something akin to describing the color “red” to a blind person. 

Sometimes the disconnect in our relationships is beyond what words can heal. We can say a hundred times what we’re thankful for about the other person, but they might not cognitively be able (from a brain functioning standpoint) to metabolize what those words mean. Enter touch. 

I’m not just talking about physical touch, I’m also talking about the touch of kindness. 

Yes, touch is primarily associated with our skin, but we most often touch people first with our eyes. Proverbs 30:17 says “The eyes are the window to the soul.” Our eyes tell the story before our bodies or words ever start following suit.

Think about it: What would your wife/husband say is the story of your first touch in the morning? Evening?

Touching with gratitude through our eyes involves delight, curiosity, kindness, warmth, openness, vulnerability, and invitation. The touch of invitation will break down the barriers of coldness, resentment, and hurt more so than any “I’m sorry” (or worse, “get over it”) will ever be able to do.

Offer gratitude to your wife/husband today with your eyes. And if it doesn’t “work,” stop trying to get it to work, and just offer the gift of gratitude with your eyes … and then watch what happens. 

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Day 3: Marriage & Thanksgiving

In light of this being the American week of Thanksgiving, I’ll be writing about the power of gratitude in marriage, and the encouragement it gives to relationships. 
Day 1: The Gratitude Jar
Day 2: Gratitude Prayer

Gratitude Letter

John Gottman says that it takes five positive interactions to counteract every one negative interaction a couple has. Yes, you read that right. 5 to 1.

This five-to-one ration takes work! You actually have to intentionally pay attention to how you can make positive deposits, because the negative withdrawals are so easy and commonplace for us selfish humans. 

Your wife/husband needs to hear from you what you like about them. 
Without technology (cameras, mirrors, etc) it is impossible for us to accurately see two parts on our bodies: Our face, and our backside.

God created us in his image (our face), and our rebellion keeps us from seeing (or wanting to see) our backside. It’s too easy in marriage to point out “the backside” of our spouse. We need to offer a loving balance of what we see in them. (Use the 5:1 ratio as a “loving balance”).

When was the last time you put pen to paper to express gratitude and thanksgiving for your spouse? I find that this act rarely happens after a couple says “I do.” 

It doesn’t have to be a 4-page letter with hearts and roses attached to it. Grab a piece of paper, and write 5-7 sentences about your wife/husband.

Be specific.

Tell them what you admire about them. Tell them something glorious about themselves that they struggle to believe.

Shower them with praise. 

Tell them why you’re thankful for them.

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